Winners of the Youth Pen contest!

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mredburn

IAP Activities Manager
Staff member
Joined
Jul 5, 2009
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Location
Fort Myers FL
We have some great pens by some great kids but 3 have shown extra special talent and care.

In 3rd Place

By Aidan Feakes

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My name is Aidan Feakes, I started pen turning about 4 months ago when I was taught by my Tech Ed teacher in school. I enjoyed it so much that my dad converted his metal working lathe to a woodworking lathe so I could make a pen for everyone in my family for Christmas. I think in total I've made about 30 - 35 pens. Since I like making both wood and acrylic pens I decided for this competition to make one that combined both materials. I chose Banana Split Fuji Burl blanks from Woodcraft and the Rockler Chrome Pioneer pen kit. I liked the contrast of the chrome with the acrylic coloring. I turned the blanks on the lathe and after getting the shape I wanted for the pen, I sanded it with 220 to 1000 grit sandpaper to get a very smooth finish. I then used 2 coats of Danish oil, let that dry and buffed it out with a cloth. To give the pen the protective coat and glossy finish, I put 2 coats of CA thin, 8 coats of CA medium and then sanded again. There was a total of 18 sanding pads starting with 220 grit and finally finishing with 12000 grit sandpaper. When all that was done, I used a car polishing compound and for a final finish applied a coat of carnuba wax to get a protective glossy finish on the pen.


In Second Place

Dakota Davis

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This pen is made from a handmade blank I won in last year's fall youth pen contest. I selected a gun metal Stratus kit to highlight the awesome blue and purple swirls. I turned and finsihed this with very little help from Dad.

IN First Place

ETHAN WEISS

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Ethan chose the blank and the Majestic Squire pen kit himself. He also cut the blank down to size on the band saw and driled the hole on the drill press. I (dad) sanded down the ends. Ethan did about 90 % of all lathe work and did all the finishing work which included applying multiple layers of CA and then sanding to 600 grit and then wet sanding to 12000 with micromesh and then finishing with Hut Utragloss.
 
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All the prizes, for this contest, have been gathered by the Minnesota Chapter of the IAP.

3rd place will be a box of blanks valued at $30.00
2nd place will be a box of blanks valued at $40.00
1st place will be a box of blanks valued at $50.00
 
Thank you to those who donated the prizes, Dakota (2nd place) is ecstatic! Thanks for the opportunity to spend some time with her at the lathe and participate in the contest!
 
Wonderful pens. Great decission by the membership of the IAP.

Your prizes will be sent out as soon as I get the address of all of you.

Congratulations everyone.
 
Great job to all the winners! I think it was hard to pick among these for the first, second and third place winners.

Does The first place winner Ethan have a last name? Just curious.
 
Congratulations to the winners and to all the young folks who entered this contest.

All of the pens were just great!
 
congrats to all the participants. You all gave us samples of beautiful work that will carry this art forward into the generations.
THANK YOU!!!!
 
I'd like to thank all involved in setting this all up, I'm sure it was great encouragement for the kids, I know it was for my son. Aidan was thrilled when he got home from school last night and found out the results.

I had to laugh at one of the comments on the first voting thread that said the kids should give lessons as Aidan taught me how to turn. I've been woodworking for years but never turned. When Aidan's school teacher taught him, he came home raving about it, so I made a tool rest for a mini metal lathe I had, bought a starter pen making kit and away he went, teaching me what he had learned along the way.
 
I would like to thank everyone who donated the contest prizes. I got some good blanks and I did not know whet to begin. I started with the John U blank and I have attached photos.

Thanks,

Ethan Weiss

Great Job Ethan! And Congrats to all the winners! I look forward to seeing more of your work as you learn.
 
Congrats again Ethan, that new pen looks great.
Looks like I guess the wrong size for that T-shirt.....but you will grow into it.
Keep up the great work and post more when you can.
 
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